At the age of 91 Quentin Blake shows no signs of letting up. The man who brought Matilda and Willy Wonka to brilliant life on the page has something new for his fans.
After a lifetime of creating joyous images of children and assorted characters for authors such as Roald Dahl, Blake has become increasingly fond of conjuring portraits out of his imagination.
The ‘imaginary portraits’ come in all shapes and sizes — there are currently 100 of them on display at Hastings Contemporary. Visitors can even buy their own ‘Quentin Blake’. The prices of these originals – not numbered prints – range from £350 for postcard-size sketches to £2,300 for larger works. The money raised will be divided between the gallery and his Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, which opens in London next year.
Hastings – Blake’s ‘spiritual home’
Hastings has been chosen for the show because it is, in Blake’s words, his “spiritual home”: for 40 years he lived a couple of hundred yards from where Hastings Contemporary is today. He says: “I had an ancient house in Hastings Old Town, with boats close by, and then one day they built an art gallery at the bottom of the street.”
Blake credits the gallery with giving him a new artistic lease of life. After a lifetime of creating commissioned work, he says it has “inspired in me a freedom to make work for myself”.
A distinguished career
Sir Quentin Blake has had a long, distinguished career. He taught illustration at the Royal College of Art for over 20 years. His first children’s book, A Drink of Water by John Yeoman, appeared in 1960. Since then he has written or illustrated over 500, famously collaborating with Dahl and many other writers, including Russell Hoban and Michael Rosen.
Blake is also known for his own picture books such as Clown, Cockatoos and Zagazoo, and his illustrations of classics such as Don Quixote and The Golden Ass for the Folio Society. Books about his own work include Words and Pictures and Beyond the Page.
My personal favourite is Blake’s own award-winning Mr Magnolia, which I read to my young daughter. I love it for the rhymes as much as the gorgeously fun illustrations:
Mr Magnolia has only one boot.
He has an old trumpet that goes rooty-toot –
And two lovely sisters who play on the flute –
But Mr Magnolia has only one boot.
In the past 20 years Blake has also worked on many projects for museums and hospitals and has received numerous awards. In 1999, he was appointed first Children’s Laureate and in 2013, he was knighted for services to illustration. Blake has a long association with France and is a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur. He was also appointed Companion of Honour in the 2022 Platinum Jubilee Honours list.
Discovering the person
Speaking about the creative process behind the works on show in Hastings, Blake says: “When I start to draw, I might have a sense of whether it will be a man or woman, young or old, but I discover the person while doing it… slowly I begin to meet the person and find out who they are.” He uses watercolour pencil in the larger work, and in the smaller pieces, biro to achieve the desired effect.
The result is so good they could be real-life people. For example, I spotted (from a previous show) a framed Liz Truss. Liz Gilmore, the gallery’s director, spotted her own likeness too. In fact, I suspect this will be an added appeal for potential buyers: “Don’t you think that looks a lot like your dad /my sister Sue /Uncle William?”
Faces emerge from a series of seemingly ‘scribbled’ pen strokes. It gives the sketches an hypnotic feel. We react to them as we would to any human face, preferring some to others. And the apparently artless composition masks a mastery of line and imagination.
Draw your own artwork
In one corner of the gallery known as the Drawing Hub are pencils and paper, for visitors to create their own mini works of art, which they can take home or pin on the wall.
Under-18s get in free and the long-standing half-price entry for Hastings residents has been extended to anyone living in the neighbouring district of Rother. Director Liz Gilmore said the gallery would continue to bring world-class art to the town. “At Hastings Contemporary we recognise the vital and transformative power of art to transcend boundaries and borders.”
Quentin Blake – A Hundred Portraits, which opened on March 16, continues throughout the summer. It is running concurrently with a major exhibition of the works of Ethiopian artist Elias Sime, which will feature in a separate review.
